Classic Poem

1

With holy earnest eyes enshrined
She bendeth on her knees
Her voice is heard above the wind
Shrill from the northern seas:
The sisters stoop on either hand
She smileth mild on each
And in the wind a choral band
Comes singing to her speech.

2

Her hands are tested palm to palm
Then folded as in rest
Beneath her dawning eyelids calm
Upon her snow white breast
Her snowy garments rustle clear
As snowflakes rise or mix
And to her neck there presseth near
A silver Crucifix —

3

Around her gloried form the air
Is starr'd with falling snows
That cover all the convent bare
With symboll'd pure repose
Above her haloed head the sky
Is studded thick with spheres
All swimming to one blissful eye
Whose beam is bright with tears —

4

She knoweth that the time will come,
And in the deepened night
Discerneth well her Heaven home
The morning and the light
And thro' the shadow of her pain
A seraph sister voice: —
But now she kneeleth once again
That others may rejoice